That was close

So Blogger has been having major server issues all day, and it wasn't until an hour or two ago that I was able to access most of the blogspot blogs I frequent, except for this one, which was, apparently, a part of the group of blogs that remained completely inaccessible for an even longer amount of time.

I was sure my brain droplets were lost forever in the ether. But here they are, back again, available for perusal like a catalogue of my memories and insecurities. Hooray!

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I made my first attempt at Midtown grocery shopping today. I had read on various Memphis blogs and heard from various co-workers that Midtown's one big disadvantage is a decent grocery store.

Word.

I had become accustomed to the poshest Shnucks (which I perhaps incorrectly pronounce "schnooks," which means "stupid people") in town (the Balmoral location), with its wide, gleaming aisles and hundreds upon hundreds of checkout lanes and endless fields full of parking spaces. And unicorns and rainbows and stuff.

But the itty-bitty Midtown Schnucks is something else entirely. It, like Midtown itself, is dingy and cramped and crowded, with horrible parking. Today wasn't the best day to visit it anyway, what with the constant drizzle that turns already tightly wound Memphis drivers into full-blown maniacs. Getting a parking space was in and of itself a 20-minute journey, which led me through the parking lot and around a nearby apartment building, back out onto Union, left on Idlewild, right on Madison, and into the parking lot of Square Foods, where I stopped in and bought some dried organic blueberries (which turned out to be a dismal choice, blecch) and a couple of fruit smoothies before heading back to Schnucks, where I waited in the left lane of Union (there's no turn lane on that godforsaken street) for an opening in the lunchtime traffic, and nearly witnessed three wrecks within two seconds, before pulling in and nabbing the one open spot in the entire vicinity, much to the dismay of the poor schnooks behind me.

The actual shopping itself was a mindfuck. Because I am so kitchen-tarded and my mind is so easily boggled by all the pretty products I have no use for, I have a hard enough time navigating my way through grocery stores, mapping out my buggy's trajectory so that I pick up everything I need without having to backtrack or wander around silently wondering what that one thing I came in for and forgot was. So making the transition from my regular Bi/Lo in M'boro to the Schnucks in East Memphis was hard enough. But at least it was a step up. Now, I'm clearly taking one for the team.

That's not to say I won't grow to love the Midtown Schnucks and its narrow aisles and low ceilings and bright blue buggies. I just have to get used to its particular resident madness. And I'm actually OK with that.